in collaboration with the Evangelical Blind People’s Service of Berlin…

Around every 6-8 weeks, we hold workshops that are part of our Inclusion Gospelproject in collaboration with the Evangelical Blind People’s Service of Berlin. The time is always on a Saturday from 12.00- 15.00h. The place is usually at ABSV Grunewald (General Association for Blind and Visually
Impaired People Berlin e.V.) There, we can use the hall or a seminar room free of charge and socialize in the canteen over delicious food before our practise. We sing old and new, well-known and less well-known songs, American and African Gospel as well as songs from other countries. We mostly sing in English and German, but also in other languages. At summertime, we like to do some outing. When there is the opportunity, we sometimes present our songs at special occasions. You are hearitly welcome to join us- as a blind or visually impaired person or as a helping hand. You can contact us when you go to the button…

In case you would like to get more information: We started in November 2012. After we first had occasionally worked together with Pastor Daniela Nischik from the Evangelical Blind Service Berlin, our next thought was how we could collaborate over a longer period of time. We realised that our strongest common interest lies in our love for Christian music. The first trial workshop was very well received, and so we planned regular meetings every two months for 2013. The participants are blind and visually impaired people of different ages. The fact that blindness often occurs with age means that the average age in this project is higher than in our church, for example.

Nevertheless, younger people also came. For example, there were two families who organised themselves so the partners played with the children when the women were practising. In addition, some accompanying persons of the blind people attended, or members of Akebulan or special guests joined. A “hard core” of our first participants has remained until today. Others joined or left, depending on how it suited them. Several times, we received sponsorship from Aktion Mensch e.V. These enabled us to pay some honorarium and common meals, undertake two weekend trips and more outings to the Britzer Garten, as well as to invite the pan-African Akwabachor to the ABSV. We also went pedal boating, once. During our outings and the trips, more members of Akebulan joined so we had an expanded inclusion of people with and without handicaps as well as with and without migration background. This fellowship strengthened both groups, who were able to leave their everyday problems behind while they were singing together and meeting each other.

After some time, our participants told us that they would like to meet more often. This was why we set the workshop intervals to every 6-8 weeks. During the last years as everywhere, the pandemic was very challenging. We are grateful that we were able to continue the project by the grace of God.

If you are interested in getting to know our workshops and possibly joining us, please get in touch using the Contact button. We look forward to seeing you!